There have been several moments throughout the first seven weeks of the NFL schedule where the New Orleans Saints offense looked like the unit many hoped it would be coming into the 2026 season.

But those moments have not been consistent enough. The Saints entered their bye week with a 2-5 record, and while every side of the ball has played a part in that disappointing start to the season, the offense’s inability to sustain success week-to-week — even quarter-to-quarter — has been one of the more damning parts of the start to this season.

The responsibility to find answers ultimately falls on head coach and offensive play-caller Kellen Moore and the rest of his offensive staff, but they’ve got to get more out of the players, as well.

Through seven weeks, the Saints rank in the league’s bottom 12 in total offense (21st), rushing (28th) and giveaways (29th). They’re scoring 23.1 points per game, which is tied for 17th, but they’ve also been held to 13 and 10 points in losses.

There is clearly potential for more from the Saints offense. Time will tell if they’ll be able to crack the code.

Here’s the roughly mid-season report card for the Saints offense by position as the team heads into its bye week.

Quarterbacks: B

Key stat:

The Saints only got a partial evaluation on quarterback Tyler Shough last season, so one of the biggest questions the team had going into 2026 was whether his impressive close to his 2025 rookie campaign was real. While Shough has definitely had a hand in the disappointing start to this season, there should no longer be any legitimate question about whether he is the guy moving forward.

Shough has been one of the few consistent bright spots for the Saints offense this season. He ranks among the NFL’s top 10 in passing yards (1,721), passing touchdowns (13) and completion percentage (67 %). He’s done this while the Saints have done a poor job in both protecting him and giving him a run game to balance the attack.

Obviously though, it hasn’t been good enough to start this year.

Shough has been too loose with the football — in seven starts, he’s thrown six interceptions and he’s fumbled the ball six times. He’s also too often run hot and cold in the same game, which, for a team that has leaned so heavily on its quarterback to be a functional offense, has made the offense as a whole streaky.

Can Shough be better? Yes. Is he the issue? No.

Running backs: D

Key stat: 3.5, which is the Saints average yards per carry as a team, ranking 30th out of 32 NFL teams.

The Saints invested heavily in running back this offseason when they signed Travis Etienne. Then they took a questionable approach with his workload early in the season, giving him an almost even split in touches with the backups, and then he got hurt in Week 3.

While Etienne was fine in the first three games before a hamstring injury landed him on injured reserve, carrying the ball 30 times for 128 yards (4.3 yards per carry), he wasn’t having a huge impact. But then he went out, and everyone behind him has been dreadful.

Forty-two NFL running backs have carried the ball at least 40 times this season. Of that group, Alvin Kamara (3.0) and Kendre Miller (2.8) rank 38th and 40th, respectively, in yards per carry.

It is not entirely a blocking issue, either: Only the Green Bay Packers (-135) have gained fewer Rushing Yards Over Expectation (RYOE) than the Saints (-95) this season. Between them, Pro Football Reference credits Miller and Kamara with five broken tackles on 98 carries. For context, Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard has 10 broken tackles on 96 carries.

Though Etienne hasn’t played since the third quarter of Week 3, he is only 21 yards off the team lead in rushing.

The only quasi bright spot has been undrafted rookie C.J. Donaldson, who has carved out a nice role as a pass protector on third down and has given the team something as a rusher with 81 yards on 17 carries.

Receivers: B+

Key stat: 0, which is the number of snaps played by rookie Jordyn Tyson so far

For all the issued the Saints have had on offense this season, the receiving corps hasn’t really been one of them.

Chris Olave is on track for another career-best season. Consider this: His 49 receptions, 636 receiving yards and 36 receiving first downs are all the best marks of his career through seven weeks, all by comfortable margins. If he maintains this pace and plays all 17 games, he will finish with 119 receptions and 1,544 yards.

Devaughn Vele has been an excellent No. 2 option when defenses try to take Olave away. Shough has a 110.4 passer rating when targeting Vele this season, which doesn’t even take into account how clutch Vele has been on both third downs and in the red zone this season. Vele has more Expected Points Added as a receiver this season (+21.2) than Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and Amon-Ra St. Brown.

New Orleans hasn’t gotten a ton out of Day 3 rookies Bryce Lance (9 catches, 78 yards) and Barion Brown (4 catches, 62 yards), but in fairness, they weren’t expecting to lean on them. New Orleans is still waiting on the arrival of No. 8 overall pick Jordyn Tyson, who has spent the entire season on injured reserve to this point with a hamstring injury.

Tight ends: C

Key stats: 24-247-6, which is the receiving line by Saints tight ends in the first three games, followed by 14-112-0, which is the receiving line by Saints tight ends in the last four games.

Maybe this is recency bias, but after a really strong start to the season the Saints tight ends have come crashing back to earth, and it’s therefore tough to give a good grade to the group.

In those first three games, Juwan Johnson and Noah Fant played a huge part in the Saints’ passing game, catching six touchdowns between them. They gave the Saints a diverse aerial attack, allowing Shough to access the entire field.

That has not been the case lately. In the last four games, Johnson, Fant and rookie Oscar Delp have failed to catch a touchdown pass while averaging just 28 combined receiving yards per game between them. The New Orleans offense has become increasingly reliant on its wide receivers to drive the passing attack.

Those tight ends also deserve some of the share in the run game’s failures to get going.

Offensive line: D-

Key stat: 4, which is the number of games the Saints have been limited to 65 or fewer rushing yards as a team this season.

This has been one of the most disappointing aspects of the entire season to date. The line was supposed to be the bed rock of a competent offensive attack, but it has more often than not contributed to the team’s overall inconsistency.

New Orleans is a bottom-eight team in rushing success rate (37.4 %), and only six teams are allowing pressure more quickly than the Saints (2.55 seconds average time to pressure). Teams that are unable to run the ball and also unable to protect their quarterback generally have a hard time.

It hasn’t helped that 2025 first-rounder Kelvin Banks has been out of the lineup since Week 3 and is expected to miss several more weeks. But the issues go beyond what Asim Richards has been as a fill in for Banks.

Taliese Fuaga, another former first-rounder, is in the midst of his second straight uneven season. Going into the Steelers game, he was tied for the league lead in sacks allowed by right tackles (4) and ranked bottom 10 among right tackles in pressure rate (11.8 %).